From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Nov 7, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Johnny Rivers

JOHNNY RIVERS

Born John Ramistella, 7 November 1942, New York City, New York State

Johnny Rivers scored a long streak of pop hits in the '60s and '70s, but
long before he'd seen his first go go girl, he had racked up an impressive
pile of rock 'n' roll recordings.
His father moved the family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1945, where
Johnny Ramistella began playing guitar at the age of eight. By the age of
13, having become enamoured of the local rock 'n' roll and R&B artists,
he was fronting his own group, the Spades, who released "Little Girl"/
"Two By Two" on the Suede label in 1957. The next year Johnny returned
to New York to make his first solo recording. Top disc jockey Alan Freed
met the singer and gave him his new name, Johnny Rivers, and also
recommended to George Goldner of the local Gone Records label that
they sign Rivers. They did, and his first single, "Long Long Walk"/"Baby
Come Back" (both songs written by Johnny himself, though the latter
was basically a non-seasonal rewrite of Elvis' "Santa Bring My Baby
Back), was issued that year (Gone 5026). Along with other Gone tracks
like "That's Rock & Roll" and "One Man Woman", these sides are much
more than just curiosity items in a superstar's discography, they show
Johnny's natural command as a bona fide first generation rocker.
At 17 Rivers moved to Nashville, where he wrote songs with another
aspiring singer, Roger Miller, and recorded demo records for Elvis Presley,
Johnny Cash and others, including Ricky Nelson, who recorded Rivers'
"Make Believe" in 1959. Between 1959 and his 1964 signing to Imperial
Records he recorded singles for such small labels as Guyden, Cub and
Dee Dee, as well as the larger Chancellor (for which he recorded the well
known Benny Joy composition "Knock Three Times"), Capitol, MGM,
Coral and United Artists, none with any chart success.
Having relocated to Los Angeles, Rivers began performing a three-night
stand at the LA club Gazzari's in late 1963, which was so successful it
was extended for weeks. He then took up residency at the popular disco-
theque the Whisky A Go Go, where his fans began to include such stars
as Johnny Carson, Steve McQueen and Rita Hayworth. His first album for
Imperial, Johnny Rivers At The Whisky A Go Go, was released in the
summer of 1964 and yielded his first hit, Chuck Berry's "Memphis", which
reached # 2. Further hits during 1964-65 included Berry's "Maybelline",
Harold Dorman's "Mountain Of Love", the traditional folk song "Midnight
Special", Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son" and Pete Seeger's "Where Have
All The Flowers Gone", each delivered in a rousing, loose interpretation.
Relentlessly rhythmic, the tracks were produced by Lou Adler, working
his way toward becoming one of the city's most formidable hitmakers.
In 1966 he achieved his only # 1 record with "Poor Side Of Town" (the
only Rivers Top 40 hit that he wrote himself, together with Adler), an
uncharacteristic ballad using top studio musicians such as Hal Blaine,
James Burton and Larry Knechtel.
Also in 1966, Johnny started his own label, Soul City Records, on which
the vocal group The Fifth Dimension scored hit after hit, including two number
ones. Retreating from the party atmosphere of his earlier recordings for
Imperial, Rivers had hits in 1967 with two Motown covers, the Four Tops'
"Baby I Need Your Lovin'" and Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks Of My
Tears". In 1972, Rivers returned to the Top 10 with Huey Piano Smith's
"Rockin' Pneumonia-Boogie Woogie Flu" (# 6). He scored his final hits
in 1977 and recorded Christian music in the early eighties.

Official website: http://www.johnnyrivers.com/main.html
The early Gone recordings are available (?) on "Rockin' In The Farmhouse"
(Hollowbody HC 12002). Probably deleted.
Compilations of his hits: The Original Johnny Rivers (Disky, 18 tracks) or
Anthology 1964-1977 (Rhino, 2 CD-set).